Kira O’Reilly and Vassiliki Dimou will invite other artists to explore, dismantle and disrupt the performance through and with their own bodies. There will be discussions about the efficacy and futility of the work, of agency, context and how and if these are ideas we can embody as we discover yet again, what is it that performance does.

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

CLEANING THE MIRROR (1995)

re-performance: 8 hours

with Martha Pasakopoulou

Location: First Floor, Workshop Space

This is the first time that this work will be re-performed since its first iteration in 1995, when it was performed only for video. In Cleaning the Mirror (1995), Abramović sits with a skeleton on her lap, next to her a bucket with soapy water. With her right hand, she vigorously brushes the different parts of the skeleton. By being cleaned, the colour of the skeleton becomes lighter, whereas the greyish dirt which once coated the bones starts to cover Abramović herself so that the boundaries between the actor and the “object” acted upon start to blur; the dead and the living start to intermingle. As for Abramović, the skeleton metaphorically represents “the last mirror we will all face”; death and temporality are the major themes addressed in this work.

KATERINA OIKONOMOU

(1981), POROS, GREECE

And There Was Voice

Location: Second Floor Intervention Space

Classical music training, opera and aesthetics face deconstruction and denudation in this work by Katerina Oikonomou, who uses her voice to discover the limits of body and spirit. For eight hours, she will produce sounds — classical arias, contemporary songs, voices, screams — that reveal her inner self and the very limits of her vocal chords. Through these sounds, she will overturn and deconstruct the classical aesthetic, the decorum, beauty and stereotypes of the opera form, using her voice as a raw material for the creation of a new sound, stripped back, from scratch.

Katerina Oikonomou has a BS and MS in Food Science from the Agricultural University of Athens. Her studies are in classical singing and modern dance at the Athens Conservatory. She performs classical and modern songs, as well as arias, literature and monologues.

After nearly 20 years working with Marina Abramović, starting as her Paris dealer and later as artistic director of Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), Serge Le Borgne will discuss with the public the meaning of immateriality, as well as how immateriality and performance are perceived in art.

Kira O’Reilly, visual artist (1967),IrelandI came to the sea and I was scared. My heart is broken

Words of a fisherman who found the bodies of young refugees on the beaches of Greece flood this work by Kira O’Reilly, that speaks of loss, decay and despair. Words carried away by the sea to become inarticulate sounds, nonsense. The artist uses materials that spoil and decompose, such as copper that reacts with salt and water to become green — verdigris. The first version of this work was performed here in Athens last year at BIOS (as part of Love Letter to a (Post)-Europe, curated by Lisa Alexander), performed by Vassiliki Dimou, then by Kira O’Reilly at the Dublin Live Art Festival in November 2015; it now returns again to Athens.

Jacopo Godani + Luisa Sancho Escanero

Location: Auditorium

Jacopo Godani, together with his long-term artistic collaborator Luisa Sancho Escanero, will engage with the public a series of art topics, such as: the research and the philosophy rooted in Godani´s work, Choreography – as a conceptual and practical process, Dance as immaterial art, the remarkable differences and similarities between dance, performance and time-based works, and how mind and body react when challenged to the extreme: giving up of old mental and physical boundaries through the artistic labour.

Jacopo Godani – a creator, choreographer and researcher himself, will encourage Greek artists on their own ouvre d´art. With his knowledge, his passion, and his specific methods of work, he will accompany them through their working focuses, those that play crucial roles in artistic creation.

Lecture by Kira O' Reilly

Location: First Floor Workshop Space

Kira O' Reilly will deliver a lecture on her work. O’Reilly is an Irish visual artist currently based in Helsinki. She employs performance, bio-technical practices and writing with which to consider speculative reconfigurations around the body. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout the UK, Europe, Australia, China and Mexico. She writes, teaches, mentors and collaborates with humans of various types and technologies, and non-humans of numerous divergences including mosses, spiders, the sun, pigs, cell cultures, horses, micro-organisms, bicycles, rivers, landscapes, tundras, rocks, trees, shoes, food, books, air, moon and ravens. She is a lecturer at the University of the Arts in Helsinki, where she is programme leader of the Masters in Ecology and Contemporary Performance.

Sofia Eliza Bouratsis

The body outside time – Aesthetics and poetics of the body in the Αbramović Method

Location: First Floor Workshop Space

The art theorist and curator Sofia Eliza Bouratsis is a PhD candidate at Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne, conducting research on the body, its images and its social, philosophical, scientific and political boundaries, as they are expressed in contemporary art. Her talk is inspired by her experience as facilitator in theΑbramović Method and is based on a philosophical approach to the history of the body in art and more specifically, on the -extremely serious- game with body limits in performance art. Finally, she will mention the aesethetics of the body in the Αbramović Method.

Evgenia Tsanana, visual artist (1964),

Thessaloniki, Greece

Office for Public Unburdening

Emotional relief in times of crisis — this is what’s on offer in this work by Evgenia Tsanana, that springs from the acknowledgment that pain is eased when shared with others. The artist will create a participatory work, an office where visitors can relieve whatever is burdening them by describing their own nightmares. These nightmares are written down in pencil on paper, then wiped out with erasers. The rubbings left behind are then saved and stored. On the final day, the artist will walk down to Piraeus and throw the rubbings into the sea, before returning to close the Museum, both literally and figuratively. Through the repetition of the nightmare documentation and transformation process over the course of six days, the Office for Public Unburdening seeks to symbolically reduce the burden of collective misery brought on by the crisis that is weighing Greece down in a joint intervention undertaken with visitors that is founded upon mutual trust.

THOMAS DIAFAS, WRITER AND PERFORMER

(1987), THESSALONIKI, GREECE

DANCE WITH ME

Location: Second Floor Intervention Space

Thomas Diafas engages visitors in a metaphorical verbal “dance” of speech, expression and creation. Sat in a chair, the artist opens each conversation with visitors using the phrase “That is inhumane”. Jumbled words, responses, emotions — all are set down on paper, to be decoded later, transmuted into a structured work, transformed into poems, texts, songs that give meaning and form to ideas and thought.

Thomas Diafas is a writer, director and performer. He uses art to aim at some kind of revolution. He has shown his work in several countries worldwide. He hopes to be fed only with poetry when he grows up. He lives and works in Athens.

YIANNIS ADONIOU

B. 1968, ATHENS, GR

STAVROS APOSTOLATOS

(1975), ATHENS, GR

PORTRAIT OF THE UNKNOWN MAN (2016)

Location: Second Floor, Intervention Space 1

Taking movement as their tool, Yannis Adoniou and Stavros Apostolatos flirt with the idea of disappearance. The two performers seek to dissolve their forms — taking as their mainsprings walking, standing and immobility, leaps, collapses and micro-movements — to the point where they disappear completely from view. As their forms retreat, various everyday objects remain in the space to remind us of their prior existence. While they never touch, the two bodies remain connected, in visual contact, mutually dependent, and seeking — over the course of eight hours — their own private reality beyond the abilities of the body. The work is not rehearsed; the movements are created each time out of nothing, instinctually, in the split second of each moment.

Renowned Greek artist Yannis Adoniou received his first dance education in Athens, Greece. Since 1998, he has been leading the critically acclaimed arts organisation, “KUNST-STOFF”. Adoniou works in dance, film and opera, and takes an active role as a dancer, choreographer, curator, producer and educator. He was a principal dancer with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, and a regular guest artist across the USA and Europe. In addition to his work with “KUNST-STOFF”, Adoniou has created works for companies and Universities such as the Seattle Opera, Sacramento Ballet, Sixrono Theatro, Opera Santa Barbara, University of Utah, West Bay Opera and Lines Ballet/Dominican University, among others. He has received support and acknowledgement for his work from the Isadora Duncan Awards, Irvine Foundation, Dance/USA, Goldie Awards, San Francisco Arts Commission, MANCC National Center for Choreography, NEON Organisation, and the Gerbode Foundation, among others. www.kunst-stoff.org

Stavros Apostolatos began his career in dance in Chania, Crete in 1991. He is an alumnus of the Greek Ministry of Culture’s Professional Dance Section. Over the last 20 years, he has attended several courses and seminars on classical dance, modern and contemporary techniques, release techniques, contact improvisation, improvisation and Butoh, with teachers from Greece, Europe and America such as: the KER Dance Studio with Efi Kaloutsi—Greece, Jerome Andrews—France, Jean Francois Lefort—France, Jean Yiasko—the Netherlands, Court Coegel—Germany, William Forsythe Dance Cie—Frankfurt Opera Studio, Riccardo Morrison—America, BennoVoorham—the Netherlands, Pina Bausch Dance Cie—Germany, Tanzfabrik Dance Cie—Germany, Wendy Peron—America, and Masaki Iwana—Japan, to name a few. Since 2000, he has collaborated with dance groups in Greece and abroad as a freelance dancer. As a choreographer, he has been developing his ideas for pieces since 1999. He has taught contemporary dance techniques and improvisation at several professional dance and drama schools in Athens and Germany since 2007. http://stavrosapostolatos.blogspot.com/

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

ART MUST BE BEAUTIFUL, ARTIST MUST BE BEAUTIFUL (1975)

In Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful (1975), originally performed and documented at the Charlottenburg Art Festival, Copenhagen, Abramović sits, naked, holding a brush in one hand and a comb in the other. For just under an hour, she brushes her hair forcefully, yanking, tugging and even tearing at it, while repeating the mantra “art must be beautiful, artist must be beautiful”. For several minutes at a time, she falls silent and with a still gaze, she stares blankly into the distance before recommencing the punitive beauty routine. This is the first time that this work will be re-performed in Europe and has only been re-performed on one other occasion, in 2016 in Shanghai as part of the project “15 Rooms”.

Leda Papakonstantinou talks with Syrago Tsiara about performance

First Floor Workshop Space

A discussion on the history and presence of performance art, focusing on the work of Leda Papakonstantinou: starting with a short presentation by the curator of the basic elements that define the performative practice of the visual artist, a non predesigned dialogue between them will follow as a public work in progress.

The female body in art history has been traditionally related to visual pleasure. From the 1960s onwards, with the emergence of performance art, artists, in their effort to break tradition and invent new ways of expression, overturned the rules of the gendered gaze. The workshop will focus on the historical role of female artists in the birth of performance and the characteristics of the modern generation of visual artists, who review once again the stereotypes of gender and body functions through performative action.

PROTOVOULÍA is a call to action. Inviting the “self” to become as many as we are. An adventure through the otherness in a multitudinal order. Living is a constant collectivization, in which we multiply and share. The primary motivation of an active being in our society should be donation of his/her work and his/her body as a tool for creativity. Through art (specially performance art) we’ll organize our bodies next to other ones, in order to promote the transcendency of the individual body, the certainties of individual order, leading to the sharing of this empowerment or even the spreading of multiple (un)certainties among us. Flowing ideas and different perceptions with multi-authorial thinking. Exploring the exercise and constitution of our alterity (otherness), rather than the self-absorbed constitution of our identity. Proposing actions, bodily gestures, attitudes, which are potent and liberating, no matter how ephemeral and evanescent in its materiality, the main project is an exercise of empathy with OUR-selves.

Rafael Abdala and Jessica Goes come together to enable a creative process through collaboration, opening spaces for others artists to join in onsite. Performers, igniters , with a desire to wander through the otherness. Art through life, in a shared momentum of images and actions. Once the project is over, PROTOVOULíA doesn’t comes to an end. Traces and trails in our (everyone involved) bodies will entices us all to seek further collaborative and multiple experiences between art and life.

Jessica Goes

(1977), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Jessica Goes, also known as HILDEMADAME, is an explorer and igniter — an organiser of chaos. Half-German, half-Brazilian, she originally trained in design. She is constantly creating projects that entice her creativity and her passion for communication. Her projects bridge arts and design, cultural production and creative processes. Since 2014, she has collaborated with Rafael Abdala; their partnership and curiosity lead them to research into and experiment with performance art and the collective creative process. These processes, and the sum of their bodies and those of other artists with their immediate surroundings, evolved into a whole new work, which they are eager to develop with “Protovoulía” — their first performance-based project.

Rafael Abdala

(1981), Goiana, Brazil

Rafael Abdala lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. He is a visual artist, member of Grupo EmpreZa (since 2008), and cultural producer. He works with video, photography and performance art, researching the poetics and symbolism of the body and collective processes. In 2014, he was invited to be an art teacher at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro), where he gives lectures, performance workshops and short-courses as part of the programme “Dynamics of Creative Thinking”. He has participated in several exhibitions, workshops and art residencies over the course of his career. Since 2014, he has collaborated with Jessica Goes; their partnership and curiosity lead them to research into and experiment with performance art and the collective creative process. These processes, and the sum of their bodies and those of other artists with their immediate surroundings, evolved into a whole new work, which they are eager to develop with “Protovoulía” — their first performance-based project.

Two day screening of a selection of work by Leda Papaconstantinou

Friday April 15

4-6 pm – 1F

Leda Papaconstantinou on the ERT TV show “Paraskinio”

Saturday April 16

4-5 pm – 1F

Screening of works by Leda Papaconstantinou

Leda Papaconstantinou was born in 1945 in Greece and studied Graphic Design at the Athens Technological Institute Doxiades, Fine Arts at the Loughton College of Art (London) and Maidstone College of Art (Kent Institute of Art and Design, University of Kent). She lives and works on the island of Spetses, Greece. She is one of the primary and few artists in Greece who used performance as an expressive medium during the ’70s and ’80s and her presence is constant and continuous since the late 60’s. Her work, apart from performances, consists of installations, paintings, sculptures, video and film. Since 1969, her work has been presented in numerous group and solo shows worldwide, in venues such as: Bloomsbury Theater, London (1970), Sao Paolo International Biennial (1986), Benaki Museum, Athens & Bei Hamam, Thessaloniki (2006), 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007), SPACE London, UK (2007), SETE, France (2007), the “Monastiraki” station, Attiko Metro, Athens (2010), 4th Athens Biennale (2013) etc.

Sound and the body, action and effect define this work by Christina Vasileiou. An eight-hour experiment exploring the body’s reaction to constant, relentless sound. The artist freely submits to the biddings of the aural incitation channelled into her ears. She becomes isolated within the constant flow of music and sounds that are her only stimuli in the space, without engaging in interaction of any kind — not with objects, a set, or the public. And the body reacts in the only way it knows how: with movement, with dance. It becomes a temple in motion, filled with intensity and suspension, disjunction and pain.

Christina Vasileiou grew up in Athens. She graduated from the Greek State School of Dance in 2002, and from the Department of European and International Studies at the Panteion University in 2003. In 2006 she received an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, London.

She has collaborated as a performer with “YELP danceco”, “Lathos Kinisi”, the Greek National Opera and Kostas Tsioukas in Greece, and with Trajal Harrell internationally. She has created the choreographies —“Treiskaidekaphobia”, “havetowanto”, “now+here = NOWHERE”, “well come”, “smalltownboy”— and videos —“I is always dissolving” and“drea(co)m(bi)nation”. Since 2004, she has also worked as a personal trainer.

The Cleaning the House workshop was developed by Marina Abramovic to prepare performers for creating long-durational works. Participants are led through a series of long-durational exercises to improve individual focus, stamina, concentration, resistance to pain, and ability to break through physical and mental boundaries. At the start of each workshop, participants must turn in their cellphones, computers, and watches. Participants are required to refrain from eating or speaking throughout the 3-5 day workshop to bring the body and mind to a quiet, calm state. The conditions of each exercise are explained at the moment of execution. This film documents the behind of the scene process of running this workshop.

MARINA ABRAMOVIC + MAI IN BRAZIL loop of videos from MAI

Videos directed by Marco Del Fiol

Courtesy of Casa Redonda

Marina Abramović’s research in Brazil started in the late 1980’s. Since 1989, Abramovićhas visited Brazil numerous times studying crystals and precious stones, and their influence on the human body and mind. In 2015, at SESC Pompeia, MAI presented the AbramovićMethod; a series of talks with Abramović; and eight Brazilian artists who performed during the duration of the exhibition. There was also a designated space for free experimentation and collaboration, where visitors had the opportunity to explore the directions and limits of immaterial art and performance, as well as special programming that included re-performances of Abramovic’s work by artist Andrea Boller. A selection of video documentation for each durational performance and the behind the scenes interviews will be screened, including a trailer for Marina Abramović’s upcoming film, The Space In Between.

As we enter Marina Abramović’s space, silence prevails. But it’s not just silence, but eloquent silence. We are going to explore the experience of silence and mutual gazing in literary texts taking an altogether aimless stroll, so as to make it a never ending experience. Bring in your favorite verse or piece to enrich our exploration.

Rafael Abdala

(1981), Goiana, Brazil

Jessica Goes

(1977), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Protovoulía

Protovoulía is a call to action. Inviting the “self” to become as many as we are. An adventure through the otherness in a multitudinal order. Rafael Abdala and Jessica Goes come together to enable a creative process through collaboration, opening spaces for others artists to join in on-site. Performers, igniters, with a desire to wander through the otherness. Art through life, in a shared momentum of images and actions. Once the project is over, Protovoulía does not come. Traces and trails in our bodies (of everyone involved) will entice us all to seek further collaborative and multiple experiences between art and life.

Rafael Abdala lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. He is a visual artist, member of Grupo EmpreZa (since 2008), and cultural producer. He works with video, photography and performance art, researching the poetics and symbolism of the body and collective processes. In 2014, he was invited to be an art teacher at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro), where he gives lectures, performance workshops and short-courses as part of the programme“Dynamics of Creative Thinking”. He has participated in several exhibitions, workshops and art residencies over the course of his career. Since 2014, he has collaborated with Jessica Goes; their partnership and curiosity lead them to research into and experiment with performance art and the collective creative process. These processes, and the sum of their bodies and those of other artists with their immediate surroundings,evolved into a whole new work, which they are eager to develop with “Protovoulía” — their first performance-based project.

Jessica Goes, also known as HILDEMADAME, is an explorer and igniter — an organiser of chaos.Half-German, half-Brazilian, she originally trained in design. She is constantly creating projects that entice her creativity and her passion for communication. Her projects bridge arts and design, cultural production and creative processes. Since 2014, she has collaborated with Rafael Abdala; their partnership and curiosity lead them to research into and experiment with performance art and the collective creative process. These processes, and the sum of their bodies and those of other artists with their immediate surroundings, evolved into a whole new work, which they are eager to develop with “Protovoulía” — their first performance-based project.

Marianna Kavallieratos, dance artist

(1969), Athens, Greece

Skin

Marianna Kavallieratos asks questions about the nature of appearances, masquerade and transformation in this work that concerns itself with the daily rituals that constantly change the outward aspect of our bodies. Surrounded by a pile of clothes, the artist dresses and undresses herself constantly, transforming herself over and again for eight hours, changing and reshaping herself to become a doll that tries on different characters and silent roles. She is seeking her “skin”, the real thing beneath all these attempts — intentional or otherwise — to distort our own selves that lead to a loss of identity and an acceptance of appearances.

Marianna Kavallieratos studied contemporary dance and choreography at The Place L.C.D.S. She went to SUNNY Purchase NY on an Onassis Foundation scholarship, and attended the Graham Studios in NY for three years. Since 1992, she has been a close collaborator of Robert Wilson, and has appeared in several of his productions across the world, as a dancer and performer. In 2000-2003 she danced with choreographer Arco Renz in Brussels. In 2010, she founded her own company “klokworks” and began researching her own ideas, making works presented at the Athens Festival, the Onassis Cultural Centre—Athens, and in New York at the Watermill Center. She has collaborated as a movement coach with the Greek National Theatre and several Greek theatre directors. She has taught dance at the Veaki Drama school, Empros, StudioMetsis,DANCE Cultural Center, and the Watermill Center NY. She has also given workshops at the Summer Academy of the Greek National Theatre, and the Watermill Center.

Elena Antoniou, dance artist

(1980), Limassol, Cyprus

An Eight-Hour Journey

In this relentless exploration of human limits, Elena Antoniou makes a journey through space that is linked conceptually to the journeys undertaken by millions of people across the globe in our day and age, who are risking their lives in the search of a new start. A route delineated by a twenty-centimetre-wide white line that runs throughout the spaces of the Benaki Museum forms the predetermined path followed by the artist for eight hours. Moments of exhaustion, failure, repetition, movement, deconstruction, silence, immobility, great pause, waiting, action and emotion provide her with the time and space she needs to experience this internal journey with no final destination.

Elena Antoniou is a dance and performance artist. She graduated from the Greek National School of Dance and the London Contemporary Dance School — The Place, as a member of the “Edge” dance company. Scholarship recipient of Koula Pratsika Foundation in Athens and Danceweb Programme Scholarship recipient at ImpulsTanz Vienna. Since 2008, she has collaborated with the artist Polys Peslikas. They have presented their work at the Lucky Trimmer Festival in Berlin; the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens, at the Cyprus Contemporary Dance Platform, and elsewhere. Choreography Award for the performance “Diary of a Mad Man” at the Cyprus Theatre Awards, and a nominee for the same award for the performance “Beckettx5”. In addition to her artistic work, Elena works as movement director for the theatre. She has collaborated with acclaimed theatre directors and companies such as the Neos Kosmos Theatre, Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC), Solo gia treis, Vaggelis Theodoropoulos, Efi Theodorou, Maria Karsera, Ralph Koltai, Nikos Charalambous and many others.

Screenings

12.00-17.00 & 18.00-20.00

AVALOKITESHVARA (DALAI LAMA FILM), 1983

DIRECTED BY MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

VIDEO COURTESY OF MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ ARCHIVES

During Marina Abramović’s visit in 1982 to Frankfurt, she directed Avalokiteshvara, a film on the Dalai Lama's message for peace. It includes excerpts from the Dalai Lama’s public talk, teachings at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Pomaia, and meeting an elder of the Hopi people.

8 Lessons Documentary, 2008

Video courtesy of Marina Αbramović archives

Marina’s work 8 Lessons on Emptiness with a Happy End communicates profound anxiety about the excess of contemporary representations of violence. 8 Lessons is a complex video installation that should, along with its companion photographic series, be understood as a counterpoint to the countless atrocities represented everywhere. Marina employs a performative strategy of re-creating stylized warfare psychodrama performed by children, meant to lead to spiritual purification. This film documents the production of this particular artwork.